An ink jet printer represents a printer which is basically designed to print as ink is injected via a head nozzle with the aid of a controlled operation of a printer head.
Almost small size ink jet printers, which are widely used at home or office, generally use standard size white papers and use a black ink (K) and three color inks (C, M and Y) for a color printing.
The industrial ink jet printer generally uses paper sheets as well as various printing object such as cloth, synthetic resin, glass, etc. and is widely used in the industry because it is good at printing a large size printing object. The industrial ink jet printer various inks for expressing colors depending on the characteristics, environment and purpose of a printing object as compared to a small size home ink jet printer and various solutions such as a primer solution and coating solution, a base ink (usually, white ink) are injected in an ink jet method, along with a washing function of a nozzle part of a printer, etc. for managing an expensive equipment for efficiently managing the system.
The industrial ink jet printer in relation with ink flow paths comprises a big size main ink tank with a large volume for storing various color inks, and a small size reservoir ink tank which temporarily stores the inks from the main ink tank before the inks are injected to a printer head.
The term “main ink tank” has been used throughout the descriptions, but in the present invention it might represent a washing liquid tank for cleaning the reservoir ink tank and the printer head if necessary, or might represent a storing tank for storing a primer solution or a coating solution which are processed on a printing object before or after color printing or might represent an ink tank for storing a white ink which is used for a white color base before a color printing so as to prevent the distortion of colors which might occur after printing of a colored printing object. In the large size printer, a plurality of solution tanks for specific purposes in addition to the main ink tanks for four colors C, M, Y and K are generally used, and the inks of the main ink tanks are transferred to the printer head via each ink pump as compared to a small size printer.
The large size ink jet printer needs to control a plurality of ink tanks and pumps s compared to a small size ink jet printer connected from an ink cartridge to a printer head, and a lot of data are used for controlling the above elements.
The common small size printer converts the RGB data into the CMYK data for a printer output by using an ICC profile, and the head part recognizes the data and outputs.
In the large size printer, as compared to a small size printer, there is further provided a RIP (Raster Image Processor) for changing a vector image or text into a raster (bit map) image. The RIP is software for a printing as well as for obtaining a best quality printing in combination with a color setting, a change of output object, work management and other various functions. A lot of memory and data process are necessarily needed for the operation of the RIP. The large size printer needs a lot of data transmission as compared to the small size printer. A data pump system is used for a high speed image data transmission.
In case of a large size printer system, a printer head part is made in a very complicated structure, and a lot of data process capacity is needed for integrally controlling and managing the complicated structures.
The carriage with a printer head is very precisely controlled with the aid of a servo motor and is subject to a movement based on three-axes of X, Y and Z, for controlling which a lot of data processing capacities are needed.
The large size ink jet printer, which has been developed and commercially used in the industry, is manufactured by just upgrading a small size printer to a big size printer. Namely, in the course of a large size printer manufacture, various kinds of parts generally needing a lot of data process capacities, and modules are needed, but in the conventional art, such parts and modules are subjected at one side of either a computer device or a large size printer, according to which a memory overflow might occur while managing all the parts and modules and controlling the same. Since either a computer side or a large printer system controls each part and module, the processing capacities to become low, and a printing speed might become slow and a printing quality might be worse. An optimization of system is needed based on a manufacture spec, but such system optimization needs lots of cost and time.